1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user terminal, such as a PC (personal computer) or a cellular phone terminal, in which content such as musical pieces is recorded, and to a content searching and presentation method in the user terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
As music distribution through a network has become popular and storage has become larger, the number of users who have a large number of musical pieces in a terminal such as a PC or a music player and who create a playlist and manage musical pieces has increased. Among them, there are many users who make their playlists public on the web.
Examples of a method for automatically creating a playlist include, as a well-known technology, a method for selecting a musical piece by the number of times of playback, by the date at which a musical piece was played back last, by the year in which the musical piece was sold, and by the date at which a musical piece was added to one's collection; a method for selecting a musical piece containing a key word specified by a user in the music title, the album title, and the artist name; a method for selecting a musical piece by genre; and a method for selecting a musical piece according to a rank made by the user himself/herself.
Even in a form other than a playlist, there are lots of musical piece information that can be used from a PC, a cellular phone terminal, etc., on a network.
Accordingly, by using these playlists that are made public, musical piece information on the network, etc., the user can register, in a playlist, musical pieces owned by themselves in a new combination, and can enjoy a new way of enjoying music, such as finding a musical piece that is not known to the user and purchasing it.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-54023, it is disclosed that each user holds a list of musical pieces recommended by each user in a portable terminal of each user, the list of recommended musical pieces is exchanged among terminals, and in a portable terminal of a certain user, a list of collected musical pieces in which the list of musical pieces recommended by another user is created, and a musical piece is selected on the basis of the number of users who recommend the musical piece.